“There was a meeting where John came in and said, ‘I’m leaving the group.’ And looking back on it, he’d reached that stage in his life. We all had”, McCartney told Howard Stern in a new SiriusXM interview.

Paul McCartney

But while it was widely claimed that Yoko Ono may have played an integral role in Lennon’s decision to leave, McCartney insists that her “intrusive” nature stemmed from her intense relationship with Lennon.

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“Even though we thought she was intrusive because she used to sit in on the recording sessions and we’d never had anything like that. But looking back on it, you think, ‘The guy was totally in love with her. And you’ve just got to respect that.’ So we did. And I do”, he admitted.

Discussing new album ‘Egypt Station’, he admitted that the title was inspired by one of his own paintings.

“I did a painting that kind of had Egyptian-y stuff in it because I like Egyptian [writing]”, he said.